Plant Biomonitors in Aquatic Environments

Abstract

In this review we focus on use of the aquatic macrophyte, Vallisneria americana, as a biomonitor of overall environmental conditions in the Laurentian Great Lakes. An array of measures of plant performance have been investigated; estimates of the leaf-to-root surface area ratio have proved to be the most consistently effective and useful. The species has been used in many different ways to characterize plant response to single organochlorines and metals, PCB mixtures, and as a bioassay of sediment toxicity, in the lab and in the field, to evaluate designated Areas of Concern, and to focus upon individual microsites and point source impact zones.

Biernacki, M. 1996. The use of modular demography in the aquatic macrophyte Vallisneria americana to evaluate its potential as a biomonitor of organic contaminants. Ph. D. thesis. University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada.Google Scholar

Kauss, RB., and Hamdy, Y.S. 1985. Biological monitoring of organochlorine contaminants in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers using introduced clams, Elliptio complanatus. Journal of Great Lakes Research 11: 247–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar